Islam,Terrorism and Jihad

Sara Khan

Sara Khan

When extremism thrives, fear and suspicion breeds between and within communities, undermining cohesion and prosperity. The harmful consequences do not end there. The rights of women are undermined, as are the rights of minority groups in our society. We have seen a rise in anti-Semitism and anti-Muslim bigotry but also hatred and threats towards members of the LGBTQ community. And of course, terrorism is often carried out by those driven by an extremist ideology....

Tushar Ranjan Mohanty

Tushar Ranjan Mohanty

While civilians faced the increased brunt of terror through 2017, the terrorists also increased their attacks against SFs. Fatalities among SFs increased from 39 in 2016 to 54 in 2017. Here also, as in case of civilians, the trend of declining fatalities, established since 2013, was reversed....

Arsla Jawaid

Arsla Jawaid

Rise in extremism cannot be quantified. The greatest impediment in investing in counter-extremism programming is the inability to measure and evaluate progress. How many fewer young men and women have engaged in acts of violence? How many vulnerable young people toying with the idea of violence have not been recruited either online or in-person...

Nezar Hamze

The branding of ISIS has been disguised under the Muslim Kalimah and appears to western society to be an Islamic group. However, for the Muslim world, ISIS (or Daesh) represents the antitheses of Islam and I consider them to be a bunch of cowards. So how are they recruiting Muslims? They are targeting uneducated and disenfranchised individuals that have real-life grievances. ISIS creates an illusion that they have solutions that anyone can come join their utopia and engage in jihad....

Dr Muhammad Khan

Today, almost all Muslim countries are fighting against radicals, extremists and terrorists by making use of their forces and finances to secure themselves. The expertise, the weapons to combat, the surveillance equipment, the IT equipment and above all the intelligence sharing is done by US. This explains as who the beneficiary of war on terror is and who is the loser in this unending war; the long war....

Sreeram Sundar Chaulia

Sreeram Sundar Chaulia

The terrorist attack in New York city
on Halloween day – in which a speeding pickup truck ploughed into pedestrians
and killed 8 persons – is a reminder of how the threat of Islamic State (IS) is
morphing. The assailant, an Uzbek apparently inspired by the IS command to use
vehicles to strike at ‘infidels’ in Western cities, has conveyed a larger
message through his diabolical act that the nature of the terrorist problem is
shifting and so must the policy response to it.

Sune Engel Rasmussen and Aziz Ahmad Tassal

Currently, the Taliban seem capable of
upholding a slow-burning war, with the help of outside benefactors. After
recent US pressure on Pakistan to crack down on militant sanctuaries, some
Taliban fighters consider opting for another regional neighbour, Omari said:
“Many Taliban want to leave Pakistan for Iran. They don’t trust Pakistan
anymore.”

Tushar Ranjan Mohanty

According to partial data compiled by
the South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP), the US has carried out at least seven
drone attacks inside Pakistan since the beginning of the current year (2017)
resulting in at least 48 fatalities (data till October 29, 2017). During the
corresponding period of 2016, there were just three such attacks, resulting in
seven deaths. There were no further attacks through 2016.

Zaigham Khan

Zaigham Khan

The house and
the last resting place of Syed Maududi, the founder of the Jamaat-e-Islami
(JI), is located in Ichra, an area of Lahore that falls in the National
Assembly constituency NA-122. Going by the recent by-elections, it appears that
the grave of the party itself is situated in the adjoining constituency of
NA-120. At the same time, this constituency may be known in future as the
birthplace of two new religio-political entities, the Milli Muslim League (MML)
and the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) party.

Ramzy Baroud

Ramzy Baroud

Every
news headline related to ISIS seems to be beckoning their demise, in both Iraq
and Syria. But ISIS cannot possibly be defeated unless the causes that led to
its rise in the first place are confronted and eradicated as well. If ISIS, represented
by the masked militant, is defeated, or transported elsewhere, ISIS, the idea,
will live on, because ideas are not confined to a battlefield, or a specific
country. The damage of destructive ideas can always find a way to wreak havoc
anywhere and at any time

Syeda Hameed

Syeda Hameed

Next time
people tell me I am brave to go to Lahore, I will feel sorry for their timid
banality. My session on elegy poetry became, for me, a metaphor for the times
we live in. But what has continued to stay with me is the short poem by Zehra
Apa, Suna Hai Jungalon Ka Bhi Koi Dastoor Hota Hai, about the law of the
jungle where small and big animals co-exist and get together to defend her if
the earth is at risk. It ends with invoking Allah to give humans Jungalon Ka
Dastoor....

Thomas Joscelyn

Thomas Joscelyn

The jihadists
have long sought to inspire individuals or small groups of people to commit
acts of terrorism for their cause. Individual terrorists are often described as
“lone wolves,” but that term is misleading. If a person is acting in the name
of a global, ideological cause, then he or she cannot be considered a “lone
wolf,” even if the individual in question has zero contact with others. In
fact, single attackers often express their support for the jihadists’ cause in
ways that shows the clear influence of propaganda....

Ghulam Rasool Dehlvi, New Age Islam

Ghulam Rasool Dehlvi, New Age Islam

Indeed, India’s
people expected that demonetization would be a strong move to crash down the
funding sources of terror emanating from the global fountainheads of Wahhabism
into various parts of this country. Most notably, the global Wahhabi networks,
in name of largesse, immensely funded petrodollars to the religious,
educational and other charitable institutions in India. In the year 2016, NDTV,
an Indian TV channel ran a two-part show on “Saudi Islam in India and Money
Trail”. The channel scrutinised the records of funds pouring in to promote
Saudi-style Salafist Islam in India and particularly its influence in
Kashmir...

Praveen Swami

Praveen Swami

Hafiz Muhammad
Saeed, the head of the Lashkar and its parent political arm, the
Jamaat-ud-Dawa, was placed under house arrest last month, though no criminal
charges have been brought against him. The Jamaat-ud-Dawa’s offices in several
areas now bear new billboards proclaiming them to belong to an organisation
called the Tehreek-e-Azaadi-e-Kashmir....

Abdus Sattar Ghazali

Abdus Sattar Ghazali

The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs’ Jamie
McGoldrick said last month that the civilian death toll in the nearly two-year
conflict has reached 10,000, with 40,000 others wounded. This announcement
marks the first time a U.N. official has confirmed such a high death toll in
Yemen, the Arab world’s poorest nation. Earlier, the U.N. reported 4,200
civilians were killed in the war. In addition, many more are indirect victims
of the conflict, including those who suffer from chronic diseases, including
high blood pressure and diabetes, and are unable to get treatment.....

Murat Yetkin

Murat Yetkin

Generally speaking, the adjective “Islamic” is used to define a faith,
culture and a way of life, whereas “Islamist” is used to define a political
line with the ultimate target of the domination of Islamic Sharia law as a
political system. Erdogan, like many other Muslims, has been opposing to the
use of the term because of his concern that ordinary men would not care too
much about the linguistic difference and develop Islamophobic feelings....

Shankar Roychowdhury

Shankar Roychowdhury

So even as the Islamic Military Alliance seeks to coordinate action
against terrorism within Islamic countries, it must also ensure that Islamic
countries like Pakistan which export and propagate terrorism against secular
neighbouring countries like India are brought under control. The two countries
with the largest Muslim populations in the world are not part of the Islamic
Schindler’s List drawn up by Saudi Arabia....

Dan Bilefsky

Dan Bilefsky

In Israel, a promoter for gay events that organizes parties around Tel
Aviv drew criticism after publicizing a party using pictures of handsome young
men in poses inspired by ISIS beheading videos. But others praised the ads for
turning the group’s violent homophobia on its head....

Aijaz Zaka Syed

Aijaz Zaka Syed

Nothing could
be further from the truth. The Arabs and Muslims around the world are as
distressed and saddened by these senseless killings and attacks targeting
innocent bystanders. Indeed, their pain is even more acute considering these
cowardly acts are ostensibly carried out in their name and in the name of their
faith....

Dr Ramzy Baroud

Dr Ramzy Baroud

Without
reserve, I always find comparing massacres – to find out which is worse –
tasteless, if not inhumane. What is the point in this, aside from mitigating
the effect of a terrible tragedy, by comparing it to a hypothetically much
greater tragedy? Or, as the French have done, perhaps exaggerating the human
toll to create the type of fear that often leads to reckless political and
military action?...

Anand Kumar

Moreover, as
Bangladesh depends on migration of its workforce abroad for remittances, it has
also received Wahhabi and Salafi ideology along with these remittances. The
Gulf countries have also fuelled extremism through charities and donations for
mosques and Qaumi madrasas....

Brenna Walsh

“Jewish
extremism has eroded the moral core of Judaism, Islamic extremism has led to
deep suspicion of Islam by others and Christians have abandoned the teaching of
Jesus to support persecution of others and the use of violence,”...

Alex Thurston

Alex Thurston

There is no
question that Saudi Arabia had significant influence over the development of
Salafism in northern Nigeria. One of the key movers in early, proto-Salafist
activism in northern Nigeria was Abubakar Gumi, a senior judge and skilled
preacher who supervised the creation of the mass-based, Salafist-leaning Izala
movement in 1978. ...

Mohammad Taqi

Mohammad Taqi

The Uri attack
came in the ninth year of uninterrupted democracy in Pakistan and yet the
thrice-elected prime minister was not able to utter a word about the
shenanigans of his generals. This begs the question of whether the world has a
credible civilian partner in Pakistan? Modi and Ghani seem to have concluded
that the answer is no....

Praveen Swami

Praveen Swami

Faced with the
fall of the so-called caliphate in ongoing offensives targeting its twin bases
in Raqqa and Mosul, intelligence officials say, the Islamic State has been
telling Indian volunteers keen for military training to make their way to
Afghanistan instead. It has also been pushing them to stage attacks at home,
providing detailed do-it-yourself instructions on manufacturing explosive
devices....